In a stunning comeback, ex-Shoe shiner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva triumphed over incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro Sunday in Brazil’s presidential run-off vote.
The former Brazilian President had 50.9% of the ballots with 99.9% of the votes counted. Election officials said Lula’s victory was a mathematical certainty.
Born into poverty in Brazil’s impoverished northeast, Lula at seven came to São Paulo, where he was mistreated and beaten by an alcoholic father.
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He left school to shine shoes and sell peanuts but returned to technical college to get the qualifications necessary to find a job as a metalworker in the area’s car factories.
Da Silva, who was Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010, is credited with building an extensive social welfare programme during his tenure that helped lift tens of millions into the middle class.
“They tried to bury me alive and here I am,” President-elect Da Silva said Sunday.
The far-right Bolsonaro did not acknowledge defeat on Sunday. However, a day before the runoff vote he said, “There is not the slightest doubt. Whoever has more votes, takes it [the election].”
While DaSilva is widely known for lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty during his presidential tenure, Bolsonaro’s tenure in office was marked by his far-right politics, his mocking of the coronavirus, the deforesting of the Amazon rainforest and rampant inflation.
Da Silva has promised to improve the country’s social welfare system and establish a ministry to address the concerns of the country’s indigenous population, but all that may be an uphill battle with the inroads conservatives have made in Brazil’s Congress.
But his administration is also remembered for vast corruption scandals that entangled politicians and business executives. Da Silva was convicted on corruption and money laundering charges, leading to 19 months in prison that sidelined him in the 2018 presidential election against Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s Supreme Court annulled the prosecution last year on the ground that the judge had colluded with prosecutors.
The 77-year-old Silva promised during his campaign to help Brazil’s most vulnerable communities, crack down on illegal deforestation and set up a new Indigenous peoples’ ministry.
Bolsonaro, who did better than expected in the election this month, built a devoted base by defending conservative values, rebuffing political correctness and advancing a culture war agenda.
Biden, Macron, Buhari Felicitate Silva
U.S. President Joe Biden sent Da Silva congratulations on his presidential win, “following free, fair, and credible elections.” The U.S. leader said he is looking “forward to continue the cooperation between our two countries in the months and years ahead.”
French President Emmanuel Macron in a congratulatory note posted on Twitter said the two leaders would “renew ties of friendship between their countries.”
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday joined world leaders in congratulating Brazil’s newly elected President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on winning a hard-fought, divisive runoff election.
Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s media aide, in a statement, on Monday in Abuja, said Buhari congratulated the new leader on staging an astonishing comeback after leaving office and serving a jail term.
Buhari said he hoped that Lula as President would further enhance the excellent relations between Nigeria and Brazil.
“I look forward to working together with the newly elected President of Brazil to continue the excellent bilateral cooperation and growing trade relations between our two countries,” the president added.
